Jaipur, March 5, 2020: Rapido, India’s largest Bike Taxi app, in collaboration with Aatm Nirbhar, a social venture enabling two wheeler mobility in women through training and development, on boarded lady captains in the city. The bike taxi app platform will help the lady captains earn their livelihood and make them independent, by offering them equal opportunity and pay model. The initiative, a pilot project by Rapido, is a celebration of women in the city, commemorating the International’s Women 2020, on March 8.

Announcing the initiative, Aravind Sanka, Co-Founder, Rapido said, “An equal world is an enabled world, and we at Rapido want to provide equal opportunity to all in everything we do. We are very happy to partner with AatmNirbhar to provide women from Jaipur, an equal opportunity drive, helping them make a living independently. The residents from the city have exhibited an inclination towards adopting Rapido as one of their preferred mode of daily transportation, making Jaipur one of our fastest growing markets, with a 40x customer growth YoY.”

The Lady Captains will operate in the city, starting March 4, from 6 am to 6 pm making intra city travel convenient, affordable and accessible for residents of Jaipur. The Lady Captains will be presented with a special safety kit that will include a Rapido Backpack, Pepper Spray and a separate emergency hotline number for any kind of exigencies, while riding. 

These women are a part of Aatm Nirbhar trained drivers. Explaining the association, Pawani Khandelwal, Founder, Aatm Nirbhar, adds, “Our aim is to enable gender equity by breaking stereotypes in which masculinity is regarded as mobile and femininity as static, through a unique tech-enabled training programme facilitated by women from economically backward families to train other women to ride two wheelers. Through our collaboration with Rapido in Jaipur, we are proud to generate employment for women in the mobility sector. Being self-reliant in terms of mobility will allow the Lady Captains to access to central services like education, work, and health while bringing the intangible entitlements of participation and information.”

Since starting operations in Jaipur in 2018, Rapido has provided income opportunity to more than 35,000 drivers (also known as Rapido captains) in the city. Voluntarily, people from all walks of life are working as a captain either full time supporting their families or part time managing dual responsibilities, an option Rapido allows to its Captains. The comfort and convenience of traveling on a bike taxi makes Rapido the most affordable choice for commuters in the city. Providing economical, high quality ride facilities for daily commuters, Rapido receives 3000+ new customers on a daily basis.